Hemingway looms large in Bourbon Stakes

Someone told Brad Cox that somebody – or a consortium of somebodies – bet $50,000 to win on Hemingway, a 2-year-old colt he trains, just before the start of the first race Sept. 6 at Kentucky Downs.

“I looked up and he was 2-5,” Cox said.

Not only did “they” cash, “they” never had an anxious moment.

Hemingway, making his turf debut in his second start, took an early lead and, as the saying goes, widened his advantage. He beat a suspect bunch of maidens by eight lengths but looked good enough to be considered a player – presumably at considerably longer odds than on debut – in the Bourbon Stakes on Sunday at Keeneland.

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Eleven 2-year-olds went into the Grade 2, $400,000 turf mile that’s part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, the race’s winner earning automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf. Worth noting that no horse ever has come out of the Bourbon to win the BC Juvenile Turf, though in 2015 – when, like this year, Keeneland hosted the Breeders’ Cup – Airoforce won the Bourbon and missed by a neck in the Juvenile Turf.

Hemingway, by Constitution, fetched $675,000 at a yearling auction and showed enough working on the main track that Cox debuted him in a Saratoga dirt sprint. Hemingway flashed modest brief speed but nothing more, checking in eighth, beaten more than 20 lengths.

“He trained well on dirt – just got outrun at Saratoga,” Cox said. “We thought we’d move him over to grass, and it worked out. He’s trained well since he raced. I breezed him with Bless the Broken.”

Four-year-old Bless the Broken won a rich Kentucky Downs stakes in her turf debut and was to run Saturday at Keeneland in the Grade 1 First Lady.

Cox likes Hemingway – but who knows which way the Bourbon might fall. Let Em Know won’t win because he was to run in the Pilgrim on Saturday at Belmont Park, but Blaring Ambition, also entered in the Pilgrim, starts in the Bourbon, trainer Mike Maker said.

The race’s only two-time winners are, unsurprisingly, the race’s only stakes winners: Popcorn, a huge beast of a 2-year-old, captured the 1 1/16-mile Kitten’s Joy at Colonial, while Mid American beat stronger rivals over 6 1/2 furlongs in the Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint. Trainer Jimmy DiVito said days after the race that he thought Mid American could stretch out to two turns, but a wide draw hurts his chances to do so.

Agate, a plucky Karakontie gelding trained by Kelsey Danner, didn’t seem comfortable racing over the undulating Kentucky Downs course but still managed a creditable third of 12 in a race dominated by How’s Al Today.

Bold Leadership, a two-race maiden, rates as good a chance as anyone. Bold Leadership raced four to five paths wide on both turns before losing a head bob in a Saratoga maiden turf route Aug. 8. He faced just two rivals Sept. 5 at Saratoga in the With Anticipation, blew the break, and played catch-up in a slow-paced race, falling a neck short of his Todd Pletcher-trained stablemate Liam’s Law.

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